Recreating the iconic Manteca Union High School Tower as part of bond measure improvements at the district’s oldest high school campus has the support of many alumni.

 The Tower was torn down in October 1969 when it was determined to no longer be a safe structure.

A recent ad in the Manteca Bulletin asked for comments from the high school’s alumni as to whether they thought the Tower should be replicated in some form.  The response was immediate and all gave their approval of the project.

It has been noted that a planned updating of the Manteca High structures will include Measure G tax funds – adding that the Tower construction could be part of the project if it included classrooms or offices or both in the base of the tower.

Two Bulletin photographers were there that day on opposite sides of the Tower and watched as it refused to give way to a steel cable attached to a tractor snapped and had to be reattached.  The column supports had been cut but that didn’t make a difference.

Manteca Union High School District Superintendent Joseph Blanchard – a Reserve Marine Corps colonel – had his office in the office near the front door of the building.  Peggy Marshall was a student receptionist who went on to take a lifelong position with the district after unification. A fire in two upper classrooms had caused the building to be condemned by the city, giving way to the building of a new administration building along with the Speech Arts Auditorium to the east.

Back in the late 1940s Blanchard had been asked by members of the Tower school newspaper and the Tower yearbook staffs if they could use the two rooms on the second floor above the administrative offices for their journalism offices for the two publications.

Among that group of student journalists were Lucille Harris, Ken Hafer, Bob Cottrell and other young writers, photographers and editors.  The rooms were filled with storage items and the two staffs agreed to clean out the rooms and put them in a usable condition for the journalism classes.

Blanchard has since passed away but his wife, Elizabeth Blanchard, has sent a donation to the committee in her late husband’s name to show respect to him as its principal and high school district superintendent.

Comments from many former students poured in after a Sept. 26 ad was published in the weekend edition of The Bulletin by the Restore the Tower Committee.

Earl Pimentel, retired Manteca High teacher from 1965 to 1996, wrote that he had always supported The Buffalo History and actively supported student activities.  “The restoration of the Tower is part of that support,” he said.

Fred Millner, a 1957 grad, echoed Pimentel’s comments saying he would like to see the Tower restored, adding that it could have been saved at the time.

And, yet another anonymous alumni voting yes, said, “There is nothing that brings back more memories of your teenage years and makes you feel so proud as when you see a photo of that old building with the Tower.  So, yes, build it.  That’s the first thing we would see as we get off the bus in the morning to start our day. Build it before our generation is gone that remembers it.”

Bill and Nancy Myatt grads from 1953 and 1954 agreed that the Tower is an important part of Manteca’s history.

Charlie Mello with the class of 1963 said, “It was a sad day when the Tower came down.  It should have been preserved.  Hope the Tower can come back in some way.”

One member of the Class of 1952 questioned how the architecture of a replica would fit in with today’s building style and the Tower that dates back into the 1920s.  She would like to see a little more about that.

John Micheletos, Class of 1950, agreed saying “The new Tower will make an excellent office.”